Morning Shots

When was the last time that you met a hero?  When was the last time that you behaved heroically?  Have you ever behaved differently than the norm because you thought it was the right way to go?  Do you know any teachers who have taught their students how to be heroes? 

Let me introduce you to a hero.  His name is Nicholas Winton.  

Nicholas Winton

In 1939, 29 year old English stockbroker Nicholas Winton realized that the NAZIs would kill all of the Jewish children in Prague if they had the opportunity.  Winton arranged for immigration papers and foster homes in England for more than 600 children.   Though he saved these children’s lives, Winton never discussed his work after the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia.  He didn’t even tell his wife, who he married later in life, about it.  His deed was nearly forgotten.   In 1988, Winton’s wife was searching through some old boxes in their attic and she found a scrapbook that some of her husband’s assistants had given him after the Nazi invasion.  She began to spread the word.

Among several books and movies that were developed about Mr. Winton, one movie is entitled “The Power of Good.” The lesson of the film is simple:  a little humanity can go a long way.  Winton saved a little more than 600 children.  But today, more than 2000 people, including the children of “Winton’s Children,” owe their lives to him.  It’s a lesson that all American children should learn.  Uncommon behavior can make the world a better place. 

Mr. Winton truly made a difference.

Another Heroic Couple

Let me introduce you to another two people that have strived to create a difference in their lifetimes:

In 2001, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gelman of Ann Arbor, MI were set to participate in a tour of Czechoslovakia.  But

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As Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) continues to build steam, I’ve participated in an ongoing dialogue with parents and teachers who are still undecided.

Although the media pits Villaraigosa’s pro-accountability insurgency against LAUSD’s anti-accountability forces, the battle is really about whether LAUSD’s unionistas can retain control over their ongoing multi-billion dollar fraud scheme, or lose to LA’s newest godfather-in-waiting. The LA Times favors Villaraigosa because he’s left of Hezbollah, and the City Council smells blood and unanimously fears losing access to LAUSD’s political booty. Like a mutant termite, Villaraigosa has reduced the Governator to sawdust, and he’s likely to devour LAUSD as well.

With almost three times the operating budget of Los Angeles, the LAUSD has misspent, embezzled, extorted, and wasted billions of tax dollars since the 1970s, leaving millions of school children and their progeny far behind. Like Tammany Hall, LAUSD finances Democrats who control the legislature that would have otherwise broken up LAUSD decades ago. If Villaraigosa succeeds in taking over LAUSD’s $13.4 billion budget, he will have unprecedented control over the Democrat Party’s unapologetic political engine. And if he gets his way, he will appoint an inspector general who will report directly to him – with as much integrity as prosecutors who report to the Russian mob. Either way, LA Unified children and taxpayers may be screwed for another thirty years.

I’ve posted a number of essays about vouchers (1, 2, 3, 4) but was recently asked about California’s last voucher initiative, which was defeated by more than a 70 percent vote in 2000. One of my school advocate friends sent Cathy Duffy’s argument

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President George W. Bush has around 30 months to cement his most important domestic policy agenda—or not.  The administration’s enforcement of the No Child Left Behind Act during that period will determine in large measure whether that law’s lofty but vital goals will be fulfilled or simply another empty promise to America’s neediest schoolchildren.  In that regard, it is sending decidedly mixed signals.

The latest signal is not reassuring: a “flip” in the order of providing supplemental services to children in failing schools or allowing them to leave for better schools.  The act’s signature promise is that no child will be forced to attend a failing school.  But by administrative fiat, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings decided that scores of school districts could delay such transfers for a year, in clear conflict with the law’s intent. 

Under NCLB, schools receiving federal Title I funds that fail to make adequate yearly progress for two years must provide students an opportunity to transfer to better-performing schools within the district.  If the schools fail for another year, they must offer supplemental services, i.e. tutoring. 

Though supplemental services can be helpful, an hour or so of tutoring per week is no substitute for offering children a place in better schools.  The law itself reduces the effectiveness of the tutoring provided.  Funding is capped, so the number of students who can benefit, and the number of sessions allowed, is limited.  Although some effective providers participate, often the services are provided by the same personnel who have failed to educate the children during the school day.  And there is often little coordination between eligible students’ schools and teachers and the after-school tutors who are tasked with catching them up in reading and math.  Finally, only the transfer option exerts systemic effect on failing schools to improve,

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